Cooking with Rose Creek Farms' CSA

Posts Tagged ‘sausage’

Any recipe using kale always catches my eye! I adapted this magazine recipe to use this week’s kale. I’m glad I did; it provided a yummy lunch for us.

WHAT YOU NEED:

2 cups uncooked pasta

8 oz. uncooked sausage

4 cups uncooked kale, roughly chopped

1 cup chicken broth

¼ tsp. black pepper

¼ tsp. slat

½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

The stars!

WHAT YOU DO:

Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions; drain. I used whole grain rotini. The original recipe calls for rigatoni.

Whole grain rotini adds extra nutrients and fiber!

Cook sausage: The original recipe calls for sweet Italian turkey sausage; I used a pound of Rose Creek Farms pork sausage which made this dish quite meaty (and filling!)

Remove sausage from casing and cook in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up sausage as it cooks, about 3 minutes. Once it’s cooked, I elevate the skillet and use a paper towel to absorb the fat.

Elevate to drain off fat.

Prep kale: wash, de-stem and roughly chop.

chopped kale

Add kale to sausage, stirring frequently, until limp, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Kale joins sausage!

Add chicken broth to skillet and scrape up browned bits on bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon; season with salt and pepper. I used homemade broth from a chicken I had cooked in the crock pot. I refrigerated the broth which solidifies the fat on top. It is easy to remove and discard, leaving the flavorful broth!

Homemade chicken broth!

Cover skillet and reduce heat to low; cook until kale is tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in rigatoni; heat through.

Sprinkle each serving with about 2 tablespoons of cheese before serving. (I actually stirred the 1/2 cup of cheese into the hot just-drained pasta, tossing to coat as the cheese melts. I learned this trick from Rachel Ray!)

Pasta, sausage, kale, and cheese!

Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

I had some leftover salad in the refrigerator, so I used it as a base for this dish. It was delicious!

Salad and pasta!

The magazine recipe includes these suggestions: Make this dish vegetarian by swapping cannellini beans for the sausage and vegetable broth for the chicken broth. Try broccoli rabe when kale is not available.

This Kale and White Bean Soup is extra yummy and versatile. During the summer we used zuchinni instead of green pepper and bratswurst from the CSA instead of pork. Feel free to vary it to use what you have. I’ve included instructions for making it on the stove or in the crockpot.

Remember to move your meat from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before. Chop the thawed meat into small bite size pieces. Cook on the stove top and set aside.

Chop the white part of the leek, and sautee it with the garlic in the oil until tender. If you’re going to cook your soup on the stove, sautee right in your pot. For a crock pot, you can use any pan, then transfer the garlic and leeks to the crock pot set on low.

With all the pretty peppers and beautiful basil in our CSA box, pizza is a must! We thought the sausage definitely rounded out this pizza (no pun intended!). Usually, we cook a whole package of sausage at breakfast time, even though our family of four won’t eat the whole package. Its just easier to cook it all at once, then heat up the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. Or – crumble it up for your pizza!

I have included my yeast dough recipe below. It’s pretty simple and turns out nice and crispy. But if you’re not ready to tackle a pizza dough, give yourself a break and buy a pre-made crust. Do what works for you.

This is what we did, but you know how to mix it up, so make your pizza how you like it!

Dough

1.5 cups all purpose flour/bread flour

1/2 TBSP sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 package yeast (2 tsps)

2 TBSPS olive oil

1/2 cup warm water

First, mix the dry ingredients. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, then add the oil and water/yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and stir. Knead the dough for 5-8 minutes, then cover it loosely and let it rise for 30 minutes. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle it with cornmeal. When the dough has risen, stretch and pat it into a pan. I use a large cookie sheet, and mine are never perfect squares or circles! We also pulled out a small bit of dough to make a kid pizza for our picky eaters (more ideas for that below). Once your dough is pressed nicely, cover it loosely again, and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake the dough at 375 for 22 minutes or until it begins to brown (a small kid pizza will only need 10 minutes).

Toppings

olive oil

minced garlic

jar of tomato sauce

2 small eggplants

2 small tomatoes

3 peppers

2 cups crumbled sausage

fresh basil

3-4 cups shredded mozzarella

While your crust is rising and baking, prepare the toppings. Cut the skin off the eggplant and slice it thinly. Chop the tomato and bell peppers. Cook the sausage, if you haven’t already, and crumble it up. Tear the basil into small pieces.

When the crust is out of the oven, beginning topping. First drizzle with olive oil and minced garlic, then spread the tomato sauce, top with chopped vegetables and sausage and basil, and finally with cheese.

Bake the pizza at 375 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve hot!

Optional “Sneaky” Veggie Sauce

I don’t know about your kids, but mine will only eat cheese pizza. We made a small pizza with just cheese just for them – but we wanted to sneak in some of those fresh veggies, too! We put one of the chopped tomatoes and eggplants in our blender with a bit of olive oil and pureed them until it made a fine paste. Then we stirred that into our tomato sauce. The kids were none the wiser and enjoyed their cheese pizza, just the same.

This recipe comes from Elise on Simply Recipes, however we modified the recipe a little, and added seasoned bread crumbs and topped with mozzarella cheese. You can prepare it with Zucchini or Bell Peppers (or both). Everyone loved it!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 zucchini about 12 inches long, or 6 medium ones or 4 bell peppers

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

2 tablespoons dry white wine

1 pound ground sausage

2 diced tomatoes

3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

1. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides. (if using bell peppers, just cut the stem and seeds out, creating a cavity)

2. Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauteé onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides, and sauteé another 2 minutes.

3. In a separate skillet heat a Tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat. Add the ground sausage. Lightly brown the sausage, stirring only occasionally. After the sausage browns on one side, stir it so that it has a chance to brown on other sides. Cook until the ground sausage is lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Stir in the onion and mushroom mixture from the other pan. Add the wine. Stir in tomato, basil and rosemary and cook 1 minute longer. Drain any excess fat. Remove mixture from heat and set it aside.

4. When mixture has cooled, add cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Fill zucchini shells or bell peppers with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves or bell peppers in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove zucchini or bell peppers from pan and serve while hot.